The Trade You Didn’t See: How Perspective Shapes Your Performance
Missed trades and losses aren’t the real problem—how you react to them is. Here’s how to shift your perspective and stop punishing yourself twice.
Are You Trading at Your Full Potential?
The other day, I walked to the post office, 15 minutes from my place in Lisbon, to pick up an order. I checked the time—18:10h. Close call, but I’d made it.
Or so I thought.
Through the glass doors, I saw workers still inside. I locked eyes with one of them and asked—politely—if I could still pick it up.
“No,” they said. Obviously.
Frustrated, I turned around and walked back home, cursing under my breath. Fifteen minutes wasted. Nothing annoys me more than wasted time.
And just as I got home, I remembered that I had planned to stop by the supermarket on my way back for groceries. But I was so stuck in my frustration that I forgot. Now I had to leave the house again.
The result? I didn’t just lose time once. I lost it twice.
The next day, determined to finally get my package, I checked online to make sure the post office was open. It was Carnival day (this past Tuesday) and it could be a holiday for some, but according to Google, they were open. So I walked there again.
As I arrived I saw it was dark inside from a distance. No movement. Closed.
My nerves kicked in. Typical Portugal. Businesses never update their opening hours online properly. (Maybe not so typical if you’re in New York.)
I got closer just to be sure. And there it was—a sign on the door:
“Closed for Carnival on March 4th. We reopen Wednesday, the 5th.”
And that’s when it hit me.
I’d seen this exact same sign the day before!
But I’d been so frustrated, so stuck in my reaction, that I never actually registered it. If I had, I wouldn’t have wasted another 30 minutes walking back and forth.
This wasn’t about the trip... Frustration blinded me and made me repeat the same mistake.
What Does This Have to Do with Trading?
Later that same day—March 4th—the exact same thing happened to me in trading.
I was writing something on Substack, then switched to TradingView—only to realize I had just missed an entry I had been watching closely. Frustration hit instantly. I started analyzing what went wrong… And while I was caught up in that moment another setup was unfolding on EURUSD.
Guess what? Missed that one too :)
Same story with losses. Maybe this sounds familiar to you:
You take a loss. You can’t let it go, so you sit there, analyzing, rationalizing, telling yourself you “need to make it back.” Meanwhile, the next great setup is playing out right in front of you. But you don’t see it. Because your mind is still stuck in the past.
The result?
You’re Punished Twice
First, by the market—because losses happen. They’re part of the game. There’s nothing to learn from a valid loser.
But the second punishment? That’s entirely your fault.
As the saying goes: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, can’t put the blame on you.
Both the post office situation and the missed trade were teaching me something, and that’s when things clicked for me.
In this post, I break down exactly what happens when you stay stuck in the past—and how reframing your perspective will help you let go to make the best of the trading session.